Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Artful Dodger

Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Joseph Karl Stieler

When something painful happens, do you immediately think you
can make it worthwhile by transforming it into a great work of art that will
make you famous? Do you find yourself using your iPhone to take pictures of
your wife when she's in a rage, and fantasizing about the show you will be
having at the International Center of Photography, instead of attempting to fathom the
source of the complaint? Did you consider writing a poem or short story about
it and even try to submit it to The New Yorkerbefore finding out what was
bothering her? Creative expression was usually thought to be the province of
artists. The artist’s life may have been one of poverty and self-sacrifice, but
it’s one saving grace was that everything became gris for the mill.
While average people tended to find no pay off in pain, catastrophe was like striking
gold for the artistic prospector. At the very least the enemy earned a diary
entry. At the best, he catalyzed "Guernica" or For Whom the Bell Tolls. However, today the degree of
separation that was always a lagniappe of the artistic personality is available to anyone. Literally anyone can imagine himself the Cartier-Bresson of
his time with the help of his or her smart phone. Most smart phones also are capable of giving Italian
neorealists like Rossellini a good run for their money. Employing the video component literally anyone can make their version of Rome, Open City(1945) whether they’re in Buffalo, Albuquerque or Kalamazoo. Say you’re
a Werther and want to record your sufferings, just flip open your iPad. Let’s
say reading this post is making your confront some aspect of yourself that’s painful. Let’s say at the very least that it’s irritating, blog about it or just, “post a comment.”

About Me

Francis Levy's debut novel, Erotomania: A Romance, was released in August 2008 by Two Dollar Radio.
His short stories, criticism, humor, and poetry have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Village Voice, The East Hampton Star, The Quarterly, Penthouse, Architectural Digest, TV Guide, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and other publications. One of his Voice humor pieces was anthologized in The Big Book of New American Humor (HarperCollins). He is presently the Co-Director of The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination (philoctetes.org), where he supervises roundtable discussions on topics as varied as “The Psychology of the Modern Nation State” and “Modern Traffic Theory, Behavior, and Imagination”.